Hiawatha

Hiawatha is a residential neighborhood in south Minneapolis, part of the greater Longfellow community area. It's bounded roughly by East 40th Street to the north, the Mississippi River to the east, and Hiawatha Avenue (Highway 55) to the west, with Minnehaha Regional Park taking up much of its southern end. It covers about 1.24 square miles and had about 6,300 residents at the 2020 Census. Minnehaha Falls sits inside the park, Lake Hiawatha is about half a mile west, and the Blue Line light rail runs along Hiawatha Avenue on the western boundary.

The neighborhood shares its name with Hiawatha Avenue — the highway-grade arterial that carries both car traffic and light rail through south Minneapolis. The name comes from Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha," and here the connection is more than nominal: the poem itself names the falls at the south end of the neighborhood, and a bronze of Hiawatha carrying Minnehaha stands in the park. Hiawatha Avenue and the Blue Line define the neighborhood's western edge and provide the transit connectivity that sets this neighborhood apart from much of south Minneapolis.

Hiawatha is mostly a neighborhood of homeowners. Census estimates put about 3,200 households here, and about 63 percent of them own their homes. Prices run above the city's: the median sale price in 2025 was $412,500, according to Minneapolis Area REALTORS, against $350,000 citywide.

As far as we can tell, Hiawatha doesn’t have a neighborhood welcome sign — at least, nobody has documented one that we can find. If you’ve seen one, tell us where it is — we’d love to be wrong about this.

Before European settlement, this land was Dakota homeland. The area around Minnehaha Creek and the falls — and the broader network of lakes, creeks, and wetlands in this part of what is now south Minneapolis — was part of the territory the Dakota people inhabited for centuries. The name Minnehaha itself comes from Dakota words that mean waterfall. The land here was ceded in 1805, in an agreement Lt. Zebulon Pike negotiated so the United States could build a military fort at the confluence. After the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, the federal government forcibly removed the Dakota from Minnesota.

The south end of the neighborhood has been parkland since 1889, when the state of Minnesota bought the land around the falls as Minnehaha State Park — at the time, only New York had created a state park — with the city of Minneapolis putting up the money and managing it from the start. The park collected history over the following century: the John H. Stevens House, built in 1849 as the first home in the original Minneapolis townsite, was hauled to the park by schoolchildren in 1896; the Princess Depot dates to 1875, before the park existed; and the Longfellow House, built in 1906 as a replica of the poet's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was acquired by the Park Board in 1937.

Most of the residential blocks were built up before 1970. Census estimates put about 42 percent of Hiawatha's housing units before 1940 and another fifth between 1940 and 1969 — bungalows, Cape Cods, Foursquares, and ramblers on modest lots — with about 15 percent built since 2010.

The opening of the Blue Line light rail in 2004 was one of the biggest changes in the neighborhood's modern history. The rail line runs along Hiawatha Avenue and provides direct service to downtown Minneapolis, MSP International Airport, and the Mall of America. The Blue Line has reshaped development patterns along the corridor, brought new investment, and improved transit access — while also concentrating some of the challenges that come with major transit infrastructure in a residential setting.

Living in Hiawatha means living in a neighborhood that doesn't pretend to be something it's not. The streets are residential and modest. The houses are small to mid-sized, built for ordinary budgets, and maintained with the kind of practical care that comes from homeowners who do their own work. The commercial landscape is scattered — a gas station here, a restaurant there, a small strip mall near the light rail station — rather than concentrated in the kind of walkable commercial node that defines wealthier neighborhoods.

The Blue Line is a daily utility for many residents — a way to get to work downtown, to the airport, to the Mall of America without a car. The transit access is a genuine quality-of-life advantage that most south Minneapolis neighborhoods can't match. But Hiawatha Avenue itself — the highway that carries the rail line — is also a liability: loud, fast, and hostile to pedestrians. The blocks closest to the highway hear it constantly. The blocks further east, toward the river, are quieter and more insulated.

For green space, Hiawatha has the park and the river. Minnehaha Regional Park takes up much of the south end, Minnehaha Creek runs through it to the falls and on down to the Mississippi, and West River Parkway follows the gorge along the east side. Lake Hiawatha, the nearest lake, is across the highway in Ericsson.

Hiawatha's dining scene is small and scattered — a few places along Minnehaha Avenue and 42nd Avenue, the strip by the 46th Street station, and a seasonal counter in the park.

Hiawatha's outdoor assets center on Minnehaha Regional Park, which takes up much of the neighborhood's southern end — Minnehaha Creek runs through it, over Minnehaha Falls and down the lower glen to the Mississippi. Lake Hiawatha and its golf course sit across Hiawatha Avenue to the west.

Hiawatha Community School runs two elementary campuses: the Hiawatha campus, for kindergarten through second grade, at 4201 42nd Avenue South inside the neighborhood, and the Howe campus, for grades three through five, at 3733 43rd Avenue South, just north in Howe.

Nearby Minneapolis Public Schools middle and high schools include Sanford Middle School and Roosevelt High School. Assignments depend on the address, so check the MPS school boundary map for a specific block. The city's magnet school system provides additional options.

Minnehaha Academy, a private school, has its PreK–8 campus at 4200 West River Parkway, on the river side of the neighborhood.

Hiawatha is priced above the Minneapolis median. The median sale price was $412,500 in 2025, up from $325,000 in 2024, according to Minneapolis Area REALTORS — against $350,000 citywide. Only 63 homes sold all year, so a handful of sales can swing the number, but the median has risen from $314,900 in 2021.

The housing stock is a mix of early-to-mid-20th-century homes — bungalows, Cape Cods, Foursquares, ramblers, and a scattering of duplexes. About 42 percent of housing units were built before 1940, according to Census estimates. Homes closer to Hiawatha Avenue are more affected by highway noise.

Homes sell faster than in the city as a whole — 33 days on market on average in 2025, against 55 citywide — and sellers received, on average, slightly more than their original asking price. A little over a third of households rent; the median rent paid was about $1,430 a month in Census estimates for 2020–2024.

Hiawatha earns a Walk Score of 64 — the neighborhood's commercial options are scattered rather than concentrated, and most daily errands require leaving the immediate residential blocks. The Bike Score of 87 reflects good cycling infrastructure and trail connections, though Hiawatha Avenue itself is not comfortable for cycling.

The Blue Line is the standout transit asset. Stations at 46th Street and 50th Street/Minnehaha Park, on the western edge, provide direct service to downtown Minneapolis (about 12 to 18 minutes, depending on the stops), MSP International Airport (about 7 to 9 minutes to Terminal 1), and the Mall of America. This level of rail transit access is rare in south Minneapolis and is a genuine differentiator for the neighborhood.

By car, downtown is 12–15 minutes via Hiawatha Avenue. The airport is even closer. Route 7 runs up Minnehaha Avenue toward Lake Street and downtown, and Route 74 crosses the river on 46th Street into Saint Paul. The neighborhood's multi-modal options — light rail, bus, bike, car — make it more transit-accessible than most of south Minneapolis, though the pedestrian environment along Hiawatha Avenue leaves much to be desired.

Hiawatha is a neighborhood where real issues coexist with real potential, and the tensions are worth naming clearly.